The use of large trucks for towing cargo trailers is common for transporting goods along various roadways. The trucks tend to travel long distances and are thus subject to various types of failure due to their repeated use. It has been known for trailer tires to come loose from their hubs and for tires be shredded once a small rupture has occurred. A released wheel or tire carcass on the road is a major road hazard.
Canadian Patents Applications 2,199,649 and 2,226,829 describe a monitoring device for detecting failures associated with the wheels of trucks and trailers. The device comprises individual axle spindle sensors and an alarm for alerting a driver of the truck when the sensors detect a vibration on the wheels or axles which indicates a possible failure. While the device senses vibrations which may indicate a potential failure, a driver may ignore, fail to notice or even disable the alarm indicator.